Design Star Final Thoughts

Firstly, could they be any more dramatic? Large lights panning the building, the skyline, the sad movie music? Here we start to see that Survivor/Apprentice direction - and I have to tell you, it was a little hokey. I'm just sayin'!

Secondly, we're down to the final two. My favorite, Emily and Michael, who is wonderfully talented. It's bound to be a good finale - filled with inspiration, right?


The Challenge:

Film a segment of their proposed show while redesigning a basic 1-bedroom NYC apartment for $15,000.

The Teams:

Michael's Team: Michael, Courtland, Nina, Trent, Tara, Julie
Emily's Team: Emily, Dan, Casey, Stacy, Tom, Alex

The twist, one of the eliminated contestants has to serve as the "client" in the space.

Michael's "client": Nina
Emily's "client": first Dan then Tom. Did she get into my head or what? Tom and Emily - how could she not win?

The Rooms:

Michael's redo: Pretty good. With Nina as his Client, Michael created some interesting moments in the space. His presentation: Fabulous! He was clearly exhausted, but somehow he really turned it out for the camera and did a great job introducing his idea and the space. I feared for Emily for a minute. Until ...

We get this. Umm, GORGEOUS!? There's a wonderful quality to this space, and you can tell that her background as a stylist not only helps her create lovely spaces like these and the one from last week, but also helps stretch a budget to the max. Does this look like a $15,000 room? And you can't even see all of it. Then her presentation: pretty good. Honestly, I have to say that Michael did a better job on camera. So my knuckles are white, fingers crossed. I am saying a little prayer to the Design Gods ... "Please pick Emily, Please pick Emily ... " did they listen?

OF COURSE!!! And her new show, Secrets from a Stylist is going to be one of my favorites, I can just tell! If you haven't already found it - check out her blog here: http://thebrasspetal.blogspot.com (thanks tami)